An obscenity in Dublin
01 November 2010
Jim Allister's letter in last Saturday's News Letter on Joint First Ministers plan to besmirch Remembrance Day with Dublin award.
Dear Sir,
There is something particularly obscene about IRA Commander, Martin McGuinness, receiving a ‘Peace Award’ on Remembrance Day, 11th November. Equally, it is distasteful and highly insensitive of Peter Robinson to be his joint recipient of the award on that particular date.
Remembrance Day is a very special day for all IRA victims, not least because of the appalling unsolved IRA massacre in Enniskillen on Remembrance Sunday, an event which many believe McGuinness sanctioned through his pivotal role in the IRA.
Thus, to see Peter Robinson sanitise McGuinness as a paragon of peace on Remembrance Day, of all days, is appalling. I support the call from victims for Mr Robinson to withdraw from this unseemly joint jaunt to Dublin to receive this ill-conceived dual award.
Though he is his partner in government, it would take things to a new low to see Peter Robinson stand shoulder to shoulder with McGuinness in Dublin to hear the man he once termed ‘The Bogside Butcher’ acclaimed a messiah of peace.
The date is not a coincidence, but according to the organisers, was specifically chosen by the Joint First Ministers to suit their diaries! When we add the fact that tickets for this ignoble event cost €200 – far more than what most IRA victims get in disability allowance – then the cause for unease is magnified.
So, I trust Mr Robinson will heed the call of victims and withdraw from this offensive escapade. It is no way to mark Remembrance Day.
Yours faithfully,
Jim Allister QC
TUV Leader
